Storm Water Utility Fee Increase

Last night,  Town Council voted on first reading to increase the Storm Water utility from $38 to $48 per year.   Second and final reading will be at our July 21 meeting.   If it passes second reading, it will appear on your property tax bill this October.

The Town participates in the Charleston County Stormwater Utility.   All local governments must have a stormwater program due to federal mandates.  Failure to comply would result in massive fines (millions.)   The purpose of these mandates is to control pollution in stormwater runoff and so protect our waterways--our marshes and creeks and also the rivers and the harbor.

We could have our own Stormwater program.  The City of Charleston and the Town of Mount Pleasant have their own.   The charge for homeowners in Mount Pleasant is $60 and the charge for homeowners in the City of Charleston is $72.   I think we have been getting a good price from Charleston County, even after the increase.

The reason for the increase is a mandate for increased monitoring of local waters, especially problem areas.  We have plenty of water on and around our Island that needs monitoring and we have some trouble areas too.  

I believe that this proposed fee increase will be more than sufficient to cover these added costs.  Any extra money raised from the Town beyond what is required for the enforcement program will be available to the Town for any project related to drainage.   The Town could have adopted a higher fee that would result in more money available for drainage projects.

Those James Islanders who live in the unincorporated area will pay the fee set by Charleston County which will match that in the City of Charleston--$72 per year.   The extra money will be used by Charleston County for drainage maintenance in the unincorporated area of the County, including the unincorporated
portions of James Island.  

It seems that Charleston County is moving towards funding basic drainage maintenance using the stormwater fee rather than general funds.   Over the years, I have had people ask me why their drainage ditches were not cleaned when they pay this stormwater utility.   I  had responded that the stormwater utility is used to fund regulation of stormwater pollution and not stormwater maintenance.   That will be less true in the future for unincorporated Charleston County.

Rather than increase the fee in the Town by more than  the $48 minimum required by Charleston County to continue in their regulatory program, I believe we should see how much of the $48 is available for drainage projects.   Of course, the Town uses other funds for drainage projects as well.  We will continue to look at our drainage needs and funding sources in the future.   Drainage maintenance is a major priority of the Town.

Last night, Council voted unanimously to stay with the County program and charge the minimum amount possible--$48.  Second and final reading will be in July.